2023 Man in the Moonlight
Title: Man in the Moonlight¶
Folklore Type: memorate¶
Contents:¶
"The actual source of inspiration for Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse is from an experience I had that still gives me goosebumps. In the game, one of the places you’ll visit is Rogetsu Hall. This is actually based on an old, Japanese-style hot spring hotel owned by one of my relatives. We used to gather there as a family, and on this one particular night, my family were the only guests in the hotel, so there was nobody else around. I woke up in the middle of the night, and because the inside of the hotel was only dimly lit by the moonlight shining through the window, the fantasy-like atmosphere lured me to wander around a bit. That is, until I saw a man I didn’t recognize standing on the other side of the hallway, looking out the window under the moonlight.
There should’ve only been relatives around, but this man was definitely a stranger. As I slowly approached to see who he was, the man looked at me, then quickly disappeared. More curious than scared, I went to the spot where the man was standing. I looked out the window and gazed at the large moon. I stood there looking at the moon for a while until I realized that I was now in the exact same pose as the man I had just seen. I started to wonder, was the man a spirit? Was he a vision of someone’s past? Or did I just see a vision of my future? I knew I wanted to capture a moment like this in the game.
Until that moment, I always thought a certain amount of humidity was necessary for spirits to appear, but this was such a low-humidity, dusty environment — so I tried to not only recreate this moment, but recreate this exact atmosphere inside the hotel for Mask of the Lunar Eclipse."
Context:¶
In this blog excerpt, Shibata describes a paranormal encounter he had as a child that he attributes as inspiration for Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse.
This blog post is written for the release of Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse on the Xbox. The original release of this game in 2008 was exclusive to the Nintendo Wii platform. The game was not officially released in the West until March 2023 following a remaster and subtitled localization.
Source Information¶
Original Source Citation: Shibata, Makoto. "The Real-Life Hauntings that Inspired Fata Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse." Xbox Wire. March 9, 2023. https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2023/03/09/fatal-frame-mask-lunar-eclipse-ghost-stories-real-life/.
| Source Type: | blog |
| Source URL: | https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2023/03/09/fatal-frame-mask-lunar-eclipse-ghost-stories-real-life/ |
| Date Published: | 2023-03-09 |
| Date Collected: | 2023-07-28 |
| Associated File Name: | Shibata-2023-The Real-Life Hauntings that Inspired Fatal Frame.pdf |